


Short Circuits

by astropixie



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Loneliness, Redeemed Kylo Ren
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-19
Updated: 2016-04-27
Packaged: 2018-06-03 06:03:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6599689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astropixie/pseuds/astropixie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For a TFA Kinkmeme prompt:</p><p>"Kylo has found his way back to the Resistance, and he's awfully lonely. </p><p>BB8 takes pity on him and they become friends."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm loving Kylo hanging out with droids lately so I took a stab at this.
> 
> The full prompt: 
> 
> Kylo has found his way back to the Resistance, and he's awfully lonely. Old friends and family can't forgive him for Han so they avoid him, people he didn't know before only know him as a murderer. He was alone in the First Order and he's alone now. It's clear they don't actually want him around nor do they trust him to help, they just wanted him to stop being with the First Order so there's nothing he can really do beyond not breaking things. He does nothing but wander around and mope.
> 
> BB8 takes pity on him and they become friends.

"I can help," Kylo said. Snap Wexley shifted on his feet. They stood in the busy hangar, surrounded by pilots, techs, people doing something. “I can fix things.”

Wexley made a show of flipping through his datapad, nodding and stroking his chin as if thinking about where to put him. “Ah—you know, everything here is covered.”

Nearby, a tech yelped in surprise as the X-wing engine she worked on sparked in her face. She dropped her tools and a round drill rolled slowly across the concrete deck, coming to rest at Wexley’s foot.

Wexley coughed. “Yeah, we’re good here.”

Kylo bit his lip, nodded, and walked away with his head down.

After Snoke’s real intentions became clear, Kylo had fled, taking with him computers full of information from the highest levels of the First Order. Reckless, not really caring what happened to him anymore, he turned himself over to the Resistance, maybe half-hoping they would take the information and shoot him dead. But they took him. They didn’t even lock him up. After all, they had a history now of taking in wayward First Order defectors.

Kylo caught sight of Finn as he wandered aimlessly around the hangar. Finn always had a crowd around him. Poe Dameron, Rey, and the droid that caused him so much trouble. BB-8.

Finn saw him staring, and the group’s spirited conversation faded. They all looked at him. Kylo balled his fists and left the hangar.

He wanted to help. He wanted Snoke dead. How could he help when no one would let him do anything?

Kylo stopped by the control room, thinking he might be useful interpreting some of the data he had brought. His mother was there. She hovered over glowing tactical displays, the blue-green light deepening the shadows of her wrinkles. He still wasn’t used to how old she looked.

“Ben,” she said in greeting when he approached.

“Mom.” He tried to keep from fidgeting. “Can I help with anything?”

“I think you’ve done enough,” she said wryly.

Kylo nodded and shrank into himself, shoulders hunched as he stayed out of the way. He thought about going back to the hangar, maybe offering his help to someone besides the deck officer, but he knew he scared everyone. He didn’t want to make things worse.

Later, in the cafeteria, he had evening meal by himself. Pilots, technicians, and officers mingled and laughed together, nearby yet far away, and he let the conversation wash over him. In the First Order, he always ate by himself in his quarters—Snoke wanted him to be perceived as some inhuman monster, not something that needed food, so being seen in public eating wasn’t allowed. As he listened to everyone around him, he tried to tell himself that this was better.

Something bumped into his leg, startling him. He looked under the table. The orange and white BB unit whirred at him.

He sort of knew what the droid said, he grew up around R2-D2 and his tutor droids, but he couldn’t quite catch it all. “What?” he asked.

BB-8 bumped into his leg again, impatient because he didn’t understand the droid perfectly like Rey and Poe did, and told him to hurry up with his food.

“Why?”

The droid rocked in place and babbled something—BB-8 wanted to go to the hangar?

Kylo flushed. “I’m sure someone else will go with you. They don’t want me around there.”

BB-8 buzzed, calling Kylo “slow.”

Kylo frowned but finished his meal. He followed the droid, who kept beeping and whirring. Even though Kylo didn’t understand it all, he felt a little less lonely.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If there was one thing he was good at, it was pushing people away.

Kylo had a shadow. He no longer roamed around the base alone. BB-8 rolled through corridors, chasing after him with electronic wails until he stopped and acknowledged the little droid. At meals, BB-8 would hide under his table and tell him random stories about past adventures.

Mostly, BB-8 seemed determined to get him working in the hangar. It was a personal goal for the droid. Kylo watched Poe and Wexley argue with the BB unit, and watched the droid roll his way with the little domed head down. “It’s fine,” he told the droid. “You don’t have to cause all this trouble.”

BB-8 spun in place, telling Kylo that they had been in worse trouble before.

Kylo flushed, remembering Jakku. “I’m sorry.”

BB-8 just swiveled around him and told him to look at one of the pilots.

“Okay?” Kylo said, confused.

He only caught about half of the story, but BB-8 was trying to tell him some gossip. It was about Poe Dameron and the pilot they were watching. Kylo didn’t want to hear this and was glad he could only hear stray words of it. Kylo did his best to avoid Poe; the man’s friendly smile always died when he saw Kylo, and it made Kylo’s stomach twist with guilt over spending so much time in Poe’s workplace, with Poe’s droid.

He forced a smile at BB-8’s expectant pause and outright question of “Isn’t that hilarious?”

“Yeah,” he said, quiet.

BB-8 practically snarled at his lack of reaction.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I just—I don’t think I should be here.”

BB-8 blatted at him for saying such a thing and for not finding the story funny. Kylo’s shoulders slumped. He couldn’t even be a good friend to a droid.

Poe Dameron headed their way. Kylo turned to leave, and BB-8 beeped for him to come back.

“Hey, buddy,” he heard Poe say. “What are you doing hanging around him for, huh? You know he’s the one who sent TIE fighters after you on Jakku, right?”

Kylo didn’t hear the droid’s response, he practically ran out of the hangar so he didn’t have to know what he said.

BB-8 didn’t join him in the cafeteria that night. Kylo realized he felt worse than usual about eating alone. He had gotten used to BB-8 joining him and babbling nonsense after only two days. He missed the orange and white ball of gossip and insults.

He tensed as he saw Poe Dameron stand up from his group of friends, excusing himself smoothly after making a joke. His eyes, moments ago framed with laugh lines, pinched into laser sights on Kylo as he approached his solitary corner table.

Kylo looked up at him. Poe made no motion to sit down, but crossed his arms and glared down at him. “What’s with you and my droid?”

Kylo tried to stay calm. “I think we’re friends,” he said.

“Friends.” Poe laughed, his shoulders moving but with no smile. “Well, you’re just going to have to find a new friend, because I don’t like it. He’s my best buddy. I don’t want you throwing a tantrum and my best buddy ends up in a scrap heap.”

Kylo looked down, at his food, and nodded.

“Am I clear?”

“Yes. I’m sorry.”

Poe nodded, uncrossing his arms. “Good.”

* * *

Kylo stretched before his morning run around the base. He shivered in the dewy morning, the sun hovered on the horizon. The landing area outside the base was silent except for a few songbirds in the forest.

An electronic wail sounded, echoing across the landing area. Kylo saw BB-8 rolling toward him at top speed.

“You’re not supposed to talk to me anymore,” Kylo said, standing from his stretches.

BB-8 whirred a few loud squeals as if to say “Who’s going to stop me?”

Kylo started his run. The droid wouldn’t be able to keep up.

BB-8 rolled beside him, whistling easily.

Kylo scowled and pushed his pace, feet slapping the hard ground. The BB unit beeped and blooped at him, calling him “slow” again. BB-8 managed to stay just a few feet behind him. Kylo wondered if that would hurt the droid’s circuits, moving so fast.

He veered into the forest, off his usual route, crashing through leaves and bushes. He could lose BB-8 over the different terrain, something harder to roll over.

BB-8 yelled at him for getting the bright white casing dirty, but the little droid was still right behind him.

Kylo stopped, and BB-8 ran into his shins, oddly heavy. Kylo winced. “Poe said we can’t be friends anymore. What are you doing?”

BB-8 informed him that Poe could have his opinion but BB-8 didn’t have to agree with it. They could keep spending time together if they kept out of sight of Poe.

Kylo looked at the sky through the trees. He didn’t want to go against Poe’s wishes. He had already hurt Poe too much, physically and emotionally.

If there was one thing he was good at, it was pushing people away. “Go away,” Kylo said. “We’re not friends.”

BB-8 let out a series of honks, laughing at him.

Kylo flushed, his ears growing hot. “I mean it. I don’t want to talk to you anymore. Leave me alone.”

BB-8’s domed head drooped. He beeped quietly.

“That’s right. Go away.”

BB-8 bleated at him one last time and rolled away, crunching over leaves and sticks. Leaving Kylo standing alone in the woods.

It was for the best.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter left, hopefully things turn out okay...


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was his life now—his mother interrogating him about his friendship with a droid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the final installment! Thank you for reading <3

Kylo resented the little droid after that. It was stupid, but before, being alone felt normal. Now he was acutely aware that some days he might not talk at all, and there was no point in leaving his quarters except to exercise and eat. He avoided the cafeteria during busy times, avoided the hangar altogether, giving up on possibly being helpful. His helpfulness had ended with the information he brought.

The Resistance was gearing up for an offensive attack on the First Order using that information. As everyone else in the base hustled to prepare, Kylo tried to tell himself it was good enough that he had provided it.

One morning during his run he saw Rey and Finn together, laughing and joking while they jogged on the same route as him. He passed them, and like usual their conversation died in his presence, like snuffing out a candle.

He stopped going for morning runs.

It wasn’t fair that everyone accepted Finn so easily. They both came from the First Order, but Kylo had always been different, hadn’t he? Too dark. Too scary. He didn’t belong anywhere, not even at the side of a monster.

* * * 

“Ben?”

His mom knocked at the door to his quarters, and Kylo let her in. She looked up at him. “Haven’t seen you around for a few days.”

He shrugged. “I don’t have anything to do.”

Leia watched him, and sat down on his bed. “You changed how this war is going for us. But most importantly, you’re home.”

Kylo nodded.

“What’s wrong?”

Kylo stared at her in wonder. His mother would never be able to endure what he was going through—she thrived on action, surrounded by danger and, well, other people. “I don’t have anything to do,” he repeated.

“I see.” She pursed her lips. “Have you made any friends?”

Kylo snorted and held his fist in his other hand; punching the wall in front of his mom, who was so convinced he was all better, wouldn’t go over well.

“I thought I saw you with that droid a few times,” Leia said. “What’s his name, BB-8?”

“What about BB-8?” Kylo practically snarled.

Leia blinked, taken aback. Kylo paced the room, trying to calm down. It was just like when he was a kid—in fact this was almost identical to conversations they had a long time ago, about Poe. _(“I thought I saw you with Poe Dameron? He’s a nice boy, what happened?”)_

This was his life now—his mother interrogating him about his friendship with a droid.

“Did you do something to scare him off?” Leia asked.

“It doesn’t matter,” Kylo said. “BB-8 is just a droid.”

She stood. “A droid is better than nothing. Why do you think I keep Threepio around?”

Kylo swallowed. He hadn’t even considered his mom had problems with friends—she was the powerful general, unapproachable, and her family was a mess, thanks to him.

“There you go, I just gave you something to do,” she said, opening the door to the hall. “Go fix whatever you said to BB-8.”

“Why do you assume I'm the one who said something?” Kylo muttered.

She raised an eyebrow at him and saluted in goodbye.

* * *

Before Kylo dared approach BB-8, he needed to talk with Poe. Poe was the reason he couldn’t be around BB-8—he couldn’t keep hurting his oldest friend, even if that friendship could never be repaired.

He steeled himself, even calling on one of Luke’s Jedi calming techniques, and approached Poe in the hangar. Poe was working on his X-wing with Rey and BB-8. He wished Poe were alone, this was excruciating enough, but then again, Poe would probably be more at ease surrounded by support.

Kylo waited for a pause in their conversation, then dove in. “Poe?”

Poe turned to face him, smile faltering. “Ben.”

Rey crossed her arms, watching him. BB-8 spun in place, domed head facing away with a self-satisfied _blat._

He didn’t know if he could do this. This was stupid. He was Kylo Ren, master of the Knights of Ren, and he was about to beg a pilot if he could be friends with a droid who wanted nothing to do with him.

“What is it?” Poe asked.

Kylo took a breath. “I wanted to ask if you would consider—“

“Is this about joining the duty roster? I think Wexley already told you we’re covered,” Poe said.

An out. He took it. He nodded. “Okay. Sorry.”

He practically ran out of the hangar.

* * *

Rey sat down across from him late that night.

He straightened in his seat. It was way past when most people had eaten. She must have been looking for him specifically.

“I could tell that wasn’t what you wanted to ask Poe earlier,” she said. “Come on. What’s going on?”

If anyone could understand loneliness, it was Rey. But talking with her was absurd. He didn’t deserve to talk to her. He tried to leave, but she blocked him.

“Ben, you feel like a black hole in the Force,” she said.

He grimaced. “Thanks.”

She frowned up at him. “We don’t want you to turn back. You know that, right?”

“No one will let me do anything,” he said.

She nodded. “Well….”

“I know.” He sat back down. “I scare everyone.”

“Yeah.”

Kylo snorted; she didn’t even bother denying it.

She sat down again, too. “So you’re bored. Why go to Poe?”

Telling Rey felt like betraying Poe yet again. He bit his lip.

“Is this about BB-8?” Rey guessed.

Kylo blinked, and she shrugged. “BB-8 mentioned something a few days ago. Apparently you two had a falling out. I thought it was nice you were spending time together. What happened?”

She already had most of the story already, but he still couldn’t bring himself to tell her about Poe.

Her eyes narrowed. “Did Poe tell you to stop being friends with BB-8?”

He sighed. He couldn’t keep anything from Rey, apparently. “I’m not going to go against what Poe wants.”

“That’s horrible!” Rey stood up. “I’ll talk to him.”

“No!” Kylo sighed. “It’s stupid, don’t bother.”

Rey stared at him. “It’s not stupid. This is making you miserable. I’ll help.”

“Why?”

Rey sighed. “Because I’m a nice person. Have a good night and don’t worry about it, okay? It’s not stupid.”

Kylo watched her leave, feeling confused.

* * *

Poe relented when Rey confronted him but that left the matter of making up with BB-8.

Rey knocked at his quarters, and Kylo opened the door. BB-8 was there, still looking away.

“Oh, come on, BB-8,” Rey said. “I told you what happened.”

BB-8 beeped and rolled around, hiding behind her ankles. She sighed and stepped backwards over the droid, nudging BB-8 forward with a foot. “Go on.”

She offered Kylo a small smile and shut the door.

BB-8 refused to look at him.

“I’m sorry I said all that,” Kylo said. “I didn’t mean it.”

BB-8 let out a singular beep, inviting him to go on. Still looking away.

“You’re kind of my best friend,” Kylo said.

BB-8 finally looked at him with the little round sensor and questioned him further. _Kind of??_

Kylo flushed. “Fine. My best friend.”

BB-8 rolled in a circle, buzzing and squealing. Kylo caught about half of it. “Sorry about the—the void?”

BB-8 repeated the words, slowly.

“The blank? You were giving me...the blank?”

BB-8 cackled, explaining that they had resolved to ignore him until he came to his senses. Then the droid banged against the door.

“Okay, okay,” Kylo said, opening it and following.

BB-8 informed him that he had missed a very interesting development in the hangar between Jessika Pava and Snap Wexley, and Kylo grinned as they walked through the base. Together.


End file.
